 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
97
5
emotions to another species that few natu-5 ralists have been able to separate themselves from this habit.
This objective observation and avoidance of pitfalls becomes even more difficult when one is dealing with a
species that physically resembles man, hat uses vocalizations and facial expressions that seem to reflect our
10
own and that often exhibits behaviour similar to that of its human relatives. It is for this reason that Jane
Goodall is to be highly complimented.
2. It has been 27 years since this Englishwoman, accompanied by her intrepid mother and a cook took
15
off for the shores of Lake Tanganyika in East Africa and set up her first station for the study of wild
chimpanzees. Here, in this compendious volume, Goodall, who earlier gave us her exciting book In the
Shadow of Man, now reports at length on the first quarter-century of her work with the wild apes of the
Gombe Nature Reserve.
20 3. For the amateur enthusiast there is a wealth of material about feeding, socialization, breeding habits
and territorial struggles including aggressive encounters between chimps and social dependencies within
the chimpanzee hierarchy. There are detailed lists of food showing what appears to be an order of
25
preferences and more than 250 photographs, some in colour, showing the variety of features that set one
chimp off from another.
4.The 77 chimps known by name and studied are all presented in individual portraits, most of them by
30
H.Van Lawick. There are also breeding and grooming one another.
5.In her earlier work, Goodall debunked the popular myth that chimpanzees are vegetarians, showing
them to be opportunistic omnivores that on occasion even hunt their food. Now, in this later work, the
35
longest field observation ever undertaken of any species, she topples other cherished beliefs. Observing the
animals of Gombe, Goodall and her co-workers show proof of cannibalism in the chimpanzee tribe as
demonstrated by Passion and Pom, a mother and daughter, who systematically prey on the young of other
40
chimpanzees. While it has been well established that the chimps do steal infant baboons from their mothers
and eat them, this is the first documented incident of chimps eating chimps.
6. The sentimentalist's idyll of nature is shattered as Goodall lists in exact detail the injuries, illnesses
45
and deaths of chimps in the reserve over 25 years and reports just how many of these are the result of
aggressive actions on the part of other chimps.
7. For the professional naturalist there are intricate graphs covering hundreds, even thousands of hours
50 of observation showing just how much time chimps in different categories spend with one another and in
what circumstances and familiar relationships. She shows that the strongest social bonds are between
mother and daughter and between siblings, although other, elective bondings are sometimes almost as
strong.
55 8. Another documented observation is the natural fastidiousness of chimps that clean themselves with
leaves after becoming soiled. However, just as in our own species, individual differences exist between those
who are finicky and those who are slobs. Similar differences were observed in willingness to eat soiled food
60 or copulate with a befouled female. Some males
didn't care, some cleaned up the messy lady before
copulating and some rejected her advances.
9. In addition to her own researches, Goodall gives a clear account of what research laboratories and
65 adoptive humans have learned about the chimpanzee. Since the late 1960s, when it was realized that even if
chimps could not actually talk they might be able to learn the sign language of the deaf and mute, great
strides have been made in understanding the mentality of these, our relatives.
70 10. Yerkish, the machine language of Yerkes laboratories, has also contributed a vast amount of
information that helps understand chimpanzee thought processes. Young chimps, taught this manner of
communication, are quite adept at expressing their feelings, telling stories of what happened to them and
75
even forming certain concepts. When first seeing a swan one young chip made the signs for «water» and
«bird». Another termed watermelon «candy-drink», while still another called a sharply-flavoured radish
«hunt-cry-food».
11. There is also evidence that the chimpanzee can invent its own signs. Lucy, a hand-raised chimp
80 wanted to be put on a leash and walked. Not having the word for leash she hooked her index finger into the
ring of her collar and went to the door. Another, not knowing the word for bib traced its outline on her chest.
It later turned out that this was the official sign for a bib and the one her teacher had shown her was
incorrect.
From: Jane Goodall, Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior, 1987.